Jonny Russell ready to fill Rhodes’ boots as U21s target play-off

The Dundee United forward is aiming to cope with the pressure placed on himself in the absence of Jordan Rhodes and rise to the challenge.

Rhodes, who sealed a move from Huddersfield to Blackburn last month, has been promoted to the senior squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Macedonia after scoring eight goals for the young Scots last season.

Rhodes was also on target 40 times for Huddersfield and netted on his full international debut against Australia last month, but Russell is ready to take over from the star striker as the under-21s’ campaign reaches its climax.

He said: “There is a lot of expectation, especially dealing with the loss of somebody like Jordan. There are a lot of goals that need to be made up for. Hopefully myself and the rest of the boys can live up to that and hopefully show that we don’t miss him too much.”

Billy Stark’s side host Luxembourg tonight, before travelling to Austria for their final qualifier on Monday.

The last meeting with Luxembourg resulted in a comprehensive 5-1 victory for the Scots last October.

Russell said: “We went into that game expecting to win and being expected to win but you need to guard against complacency in games like this.

“If we just do the things that we do right, then we will  definitely get a result.”

Scotland sit on ten points – three behind the table-topping Netherlands – in Group 10 and Stark believes maximum points from the last two games will be necessary to secure their place as one of the four best runners-up for the play-offs. He said: “We need six. You could argue maybe less than that but looking at the other groups, I think we need  16 points.”

First of all though, Stark simply wants their hopes to remain alive heading into the clash with Austria. He said: “It’s an incentive to provide the chance for the last game to be a cup final.

“We know we need to take that chance. The Thursday game is an opportunity to make that game a big game for us.

“We know if we don’t succeed on Thursday, the chances are that we’re not going to qualify.”

As far as Stark is concerned, he wants more of the same from his players. He said: “I’ve said it to them constantly – in every game there is no room for error in this competition.

“In every game you are under the cosh, you need to get something out of the game, you need to win games.

“That’s the way they have gone into every game and they have handled it brilliantly. Hopefully they can produce the form they have shown.”

Two players will walk a suspension tightrope for Scotland tonight. Ross Perry and Scott Allan both have yellow cards to their names so far in the  European Championship qualifying campaign going into this evening’s meeting at St Mirren Park. With players picking up a one-match suspension if they are cautioned twice, the pair know another booking in  Paisley will mean they will have to sit out the clash with Austria in Altach next midweek.

Hibernian midfielder David Wotherspoon sits out tonight after picking up a ban in May’s 2-2 draw with Bulgaria but  returns against the Austrians.